Hello!

Today I’ll be bringing you Ohaiyo Japan 三 , pronounced san in Japanese which is exactly the same as in Mandarin! 😉

I left off at the end of day 4, where we arrived at the beautiful Isohara Seaside Hotel.

So now for…

Day 5! ^^

Very tasty looking breakfast which I enjoyed a lot. Chicken, egg, wedges and banana.

A basket of really thick toast for sharing. The morning light is so lovely eh? ^^

Isohara Seaside Hotel’s entrance, taken from the coach.

And off we go for our first activity of the day, visiting students at Higashi elementary school of Takahagi City, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Guess who we saw from on the coach? Mr Green Bird! Kekeke. He was the mascot that joined us while we played with the children during our short visit..

Picture of the field where we lined up to wait for the children to join us. No photos allowed with the children, though we did take a few towards the end, but I won’t be posting here.

Another clearer picture of Mr Green Bird, that the children LOVED and bullied endlessly…… Kids will be kids, no matter the nationality! >.< Some tried to climb on his back, some tug at his legs (!!!) and some pulled his little tail endlessly. I felt so bad for him.

We were very very sad to part with our elementary school friends, each pair of us were grouped with 2-3 children and we transferred 3 pots of flowers into the planters that we made from the previous day.

After our elementary school visit, we came to tour a traditional Japanese house, the Hozumi Family Residence. 

Signboard pointing us the way from where we alighted from the coach. 

View of the grand house upon entrance. It reminds me a little of the traditional korean houses I watch on dramas. 🙂

Vintage photos of the house, its garden and its owners.

A drawing of the house, and it really still looks pretty much like this!

Photo of the current kitchen, which is updated with modern day sinks.

Television corner, where a sign says “No smoking.”

The tea corner, with tatami mats and traditional Japanese interior.

The same tea corner, but from a different view.

The fire place and an example of how the kettle is hung! Here I am excitedly standing under a plum tree that’s flowered in early spring. 😀

The next stop was Otsu port, where we observed and heard first hand experiences of the fishermen / staff of the Otsu port.

Here the two Otsu Port fishermen standing in the middle are sharing about how the crack in the ground where they are standing on, came about after the tsunami and earthquake.

Here we see where the arrow is placed, the height of the flood brought about by the tsunami back in 2011!

With Greggy, Ginette, Ying, Dez and Myself. ^^ We were FREEZING in the cold! Heh.

A castaway starfish on the gravel. This starfish has unfortunately dried and died. Reminds me of the inspiring story of the old man why the young boy why he is picking up starfishes along the beach and throwing them into the sea when it is impossible for him to clear all the starfishes on the beach. The young boy pondered for a moment as he threw in another and replied, “Well, I made a difference to that one!” The story is adapted from The Star Thrower story written by Loren C. Eiseley and it speaks of the idealism of children and youth that can change the world. :’)

The HUGE seagulls that were about the port. You can’t tell from this photo, but they were roughly twice the size of an average mynah or crow in Singapore. Probably because they thrive on the rich seafood in the area!!! 

Here we see workers methodically packing away fresh octopus right from the buckets into styrofoam boxes with ice.

A boat docked along Otsu port, in the setting sun.

Then we headed back to our hotel for dinner!

A panoramic shot of our dinner venue in Isohara Seaside Hotel.

Tuna and mushroom pasta which was super yummy! I am not a fan of tuna but I am a fan of this dish.  Infact I am a huge fan of Japanese and Western fusion pastas, like Spaghetti Goemon restaurant chain in Singapore. ^^

Not sure if this is a Japanese dish, but it sure looks and tasted like the Vietnamese rice paper spring rolls!

And yummy tempura fish with a very generous helping of tar tar sauce for sharing.

AS IF we didn’t eat enough. 😛 We headed out because we wanted to try the sashimi plate at the neighbouring restaurant but we were a step too late as they closed at 9pm so we headed to nearby local Japanese fast food chain, Sukiya.

The boys, Greggo, SJ and Alex.

Adeline, me, Xav and Desmond. We look tired because we probably were but we didn’t want to waste our time sleeping in our rooms and wanted to experience more of Japan instead! 😀

Day 6

Our first activity of day 6 was to visit Glass Workshop Silica and attend a workshop to design cups that would be frosted!

The beautifully designed Glass Workshop Silica, with a modern, futuristic architecture.

My design, with a four leaf clover inspired design and “爱“ which stands for love, both in Japanese and Mandarin. The cups we design and frosted would be sold in the workshop and funds would go to the Kizuna Bond Project.

Here’s our group’s resident quirky girl Beatrice while she’s intently at work!

Here Dylan our fashion design extraordinaire is designing his cup.

And not missing out our super stylist Greg or aka Greggy Woo with his paisley inspired design. They were all too busy to finish up in the all0cated 45min to look up at me for the photos! 😛 

I had minutes to spare so I walked about the workshop and snuck this photo with my #ootd and the simply breathtaking background scenery. :’) I would LOVE to wake up to a scenery like this everyday!!!

For lunch, we came by to this place Ichiba Shokudou which is located right next to a fish market. 

It was a super Tempura spread!!! Xav, standing up with the other seated Temasek Poly (TP) fashion design girls. 

Omo, omo!!! Fried wedges, fried CHEEZBALLS, fried fish!!! <3<3<3 

Then we took a quick walk at the fish market and here’s a snap of fish sashimi for sampling! Thumbs up for fresh Japanese seafood!

Before our 1 hour lunch break was up, Ying and I snuck to this beautiful vast plain field for a quick #ootd shoot. My outfit’s inspired by Japanese school girl uniform, hence the school girl skirt, Peter Pan collar top, layered with a red cardigan with matching stockings.  Finishing the look with my trusty coat and boots which I wore for everyday of the trip. Both the coat and boots I bought from my HK trip at Mongkok, Argyle shopping center for about S$20 each. ^^

After the workshop, we headed to Hitachi Civic Center to prepare for our presentation. No photos for that today, but there will be when we are back again on day 7.

Dinner time!

Delish fried fish and cookied veggies~

More tempura fish, mushrooms and sweet potato.

Chilled soba (Japanese for noodles) with soba sauce!

On this night, the group of us managed to make it on time to the restaurant next door for a platter of sashimi for sharing and ice cream! But I didn’t manage to capture any flattering photos as I was more caught up with eating. Heh.

After our 2 rounds of dinner, we headed back to our room, specifically the one I shared with Ade and Xav for our group meeting sesh where we prepared slides and props for our presentation on what and how we plan to share our trip in Japan when we get back to Singapore. That’s how Kizuna 10 came about! 🙂

And with that, sums up Ohaiyo Japan (3), days 5 and 6!

We’re more than mid way into our Japan trip, this series of photos are taking a lotttt longer to edit and caption than I’d expected! AND i am gaining weight while preparing because looking at all these mighty delish food keeps making me hungry and snacking. 😛 Hope you are enjoying it! ^^

xx

Ena

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